Young woman is cleared by court of murder in Milton Keynes

It happened following an application this week by her defence team that there was no case to answer against the 20 year old, who had denied the charge at Luton crown court.

Judge Charles Gratwicke, having listened to the argument, agreed there was insufficient evidence for the murder charge to remain against Miss Turrell.

She now faces a single charge of assisting an offender.

Following the judge’s ruling, Miss Turrell’s co defendant Tyriq Alowooja went into the witness box to tell the jury how Mr Wiafe was accidentally stabbed four times during a violent struggle.

He said he feared his life was in danger as they grappled in a street on New Year's Eve last year on the Oxley Park Estate.

Mr Alowooja, who is also 20, pleads not guilty to murdering Mr Wiafe.

During the trial, the jury have been told how Mr Wiafe - who was known to his customers as “Mitch” “Whit” or “Pepsi” - had driven onto the Oxley Park Estate on the afternoon of New Year's Eve last year to collect drugs that were being stored for him at a flat in Carradine Crescent, Luton crown court was told.

Also on the estate that afternoon was drug dealer Mr Alowooja and his girlfriend Miss Turrell, who had driven there to supply drugs to a woman who had phoned him earlier.

Mr Alowooja and Brooke Turrell lived together in Vellan Avenue on Fishermead.

The jury have been told Miss Turrell had quit her job to act as a driver for her boyfriend.

In the witness box Mr Alowooja said he would travel to London to buy the drugs he sold back in Milton Keynes.

Asked by his barrister, Mr Ali Bajwa QC if he ever carried a weapon when supplying drugs to customers, he said: “No, not during the day.”

He said at night he would sometimes carry a “medium sized” kitchen knife if he was dealing to a customer he didn’t know or going into an area he was unfamiliar with.

He said the purpose for carrying a knife on these occasions would be to deter anyone who was thinking of robbing him.

Mr Alowooja said that, apart from his personal iPhone, he had two other mobile phones which he used for the purpose of dealing drugs.

He said he would regularly change the numbers for these two phones sending out group text messages to his customers informing them of the new numbers they could call him on.

Continuing his evidence he said he knew of Jefferey Wiafe, but didn’t know him.

Asked by his barrister if he knew anything about a drugs line connected to Mr Wiafe having gone missing, he replied: “No.”

Mr Bajwa asked him: “Did you ever take Jefferey Wiafe’s drugs phone?”

He replied: “No”

Mr Bajwa then asked: “Did you take any of Jefferey Wiafe’s customers?”

He said he hadn’t, but he told the court he was getting feedback from the people he dealt drugs to that his drugs were better than the drugs of other dealers.

Mr Alowooja told the jury how, on New Year's Eve last year, he and Miss Turrell travelled to London in a Wolkswagen Polo car to buy drugs.

During the morning he said he had been receiving calls from a woman on the Oxhey Park Estate asking if he could supply her with some.

He said he didn’t know her and he had never previously sold drugs on the estate.

That afternoon, on returning from London, he said he and his girlfriend - who was driving the Polo - travelled to the estate to meet the woman for a drugs deal.

He told the jury they ended up in Peck Court on the estate, and it was then he saw the woman walking towards their car from Carradine Crescent.

Mr Alowooja said he was in the front passenger seat and the woman got onto the back seat of the car for the exchange.

He said it was at that point that the white Astra car slowly drove past their car.

The defendant said he asked the woman who had just got in if she knew the person driving it and she said she didn’t.

Mr Alowooja said the woman then got out and he and Miss Turrell started to drive away. He said they had to turn the car around in the road and he could see the white Astra had stopped.

He said someone got out and walked in front of the Polo.

“As he got closer I thought I knew him,” he told the jury.

He said Mr Wiafe was bending and appeared to be “squinting to see who was in the car.”

Mr Alowooj then told the court how Mr Wiafe came to his front seat passenger door, opened it and reached in and grabbed the hoodie he was wearing.

“He started to tug it for me to get out of the car,“ he said.

He said the other man looked angry and he ended up standing outside the car with Mr Wiafe still holding the collar area of his jacket.

“I said like ‘What?’ in a confused voice. He wanted me to get into his car and I didn’t understand.”

He said as Mr Wiafe continued to hold him with his right hand, he (Wiafe) then reached down with his left hand towards his waistband.

“I moved my right hand towards his forearm and grabbed his arm."

He told the court “He’d gone to reach for something so I grabbed his arm to see what he was reaching for.”

Mr Alowooja said he could then see a silver handle in Mr Wiafe’s left hand and realised he had a knife.

He said he also grabbed the handle of the knife.

“I wanted to grab the knife off him. If he pulled it out I could have got stabbed,” he said.

As the struggle continued, he said they both “kind of pulled it out of the waistband.”

He went on: “I was surprised that my life could be in danger now we both had our hands on the handle. Any one of us could have been stabbed."

He described the weapon as an “army knife” like a dagger with a thin blade.

Mr Alowooja said he was sure that up to this point in the scuffle Mr Wiafe had not sustained any of the four wounds he suffered that day.

He went on “I was trying to pull it away from him and he was trying to pull it towards him and away from me."

The court has heard that two of the wounds Mr Wiafe suffered were to both his thighs and the defendant said he believed it was during this part of the struggle that those two wounds could have been inflicted, but he wasn’t sure.

Mr Alowooja said he was able to turn the knife in Mr Wiafe’s hand towards his thumb which had the effect of releasing it from his (Mr Wiafe’s) grip.

“I had it in my right hand,” he told the jury and said it was then that the other man swung his fist towards his head, which he was able to block with his right arm.

He said the blade of the knife had gone though the upper clothing of Mr Wiafe, who was later found to have a wound to his left arm.

As the struggle continued he said Mr Wiafe grabbed him by his right fist that held the knife and swung him into the back of the white Astra.

“We have gone into the back of the Astra and I realised he had sustained an injury” he told the jury.

He said he realised the knife had gone into him and at first he thought it was in the area of his belly.

Mr Alowooja said Mr Wiafe started “hobbling” off and, as he did, told him “Watch, you’re done.”

“I thought he was going to get something else or someone,“ he said

He told the court he returned to the Polo and got in with the knife, saying he didn’t want to leave it at the scene “for forensic reasons.”

The jury has been told that just before 3.30pm a number of residents in the block or nearby heard shouting.

One resident is said to have heard someone shout aggressively “You’re done, you’re f...... done!”

Minutes later he had gone to his window which overlooks Peck Court to see the white Vauxhall with the driver’s door open.

He then went to balcony where he could see some of his neighbours carrying out first aid to a man on the ground.

The police arrived on the scene around 10 minutes later to find Mr Wiafe lying in the centre of the road opposite the block of flats on Carradine Crescent with people performing CPR on him.

The jury have been told that Mr Wiafe died in hospital later that afternoon from a deep stab wound to the left hand side of his chest.

The prosecution say that back at Vellan Avenue, Tyriq Alowooja removed his clothes and placed them along with the knife in a binbag.

Miss Turrell is alleged to have driven him to a lake with the bag containing the items where he disposed of them.

The case against Alowoojais continuing.